Decided to up my vinegar today

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I've been dosing about 110 mL vinegar per day for several years, but today I upped that to 177 mL as an experiment

My rational has to do with the look of the area where I dose the vinegar, which is into the first of three consecutive refugia (each a 44 gallon Brute can), entering with water from the display tank.

I think that the area between the top of the rock and the water line (about 8" deep) in the refugium looks very attractive. Coralline is growing well, some macroalgae, and numerous sponges. No sign of cyano at all. If all the display tank rock looked that good, I'd be happy. The DT has some cyano (unusual, almost spherical brown globs the size of a half dollar, as opposed to the normal mats).

In the past, I've dosed up to 410 mL vinegar per day, and that was too much based on haziness, browning of anemones, etc., but now I'm experimenting with the 177 mL.

I'll let folks know what (if anything) happens.

 

[Zero Nitrates]

Following.
I just started dosing vinegar after reading your articles. I am interested to see where the best ratio is.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Cool! Following along!

 

[hart24601]

Every try dosing right before the DT?

 

[RacingTiger03]

very interested.. I does straight into my DT dilluted with water (very slowly mind you) and straight into my strongest power head so it disperses quickly. I never noticed any un-suspect note of growth of anything over the period I was doing so.. except downstream one rock was getting some brown wafer algae. hmmm, am I losing some benefit by dilluting into my top-off water?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Every try dosing right before the DT?

No. My thought with dosing before the refugia was that the bacteria would grow down in the rocks and denitrification would take place there as well.

That would avoid unsightly bacteria in the DT.

But I've never seen any in the refugia either.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

very interested.. I does straight into my DT dilluted with water (very slowly mind you) and straight into my strongest power head so it disperses quickly. I never noticed any un-suspect note of growth of anything over the period I was doing so.. except downstream one rock was getting some brown wafer algae. hmmm, am I losing some benefit by dilluting into my top-off water?

No, dilution won't change the benefit.

 

[hart24601]

I am curious how much of the carbon reaches the dt with that dose, or if a majority of it is utilized before reaching the display. Since so many organisms, not just bacteria, can use this type of carbon dosing I wonder if dosing before a large refugium would encourage different organisms than dosing closer to the DT.

 

[3Twinklets]

Very interested to hear where this goes.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I am curious how much of the carbon reaches the dt with that dose, or if a majority of it is utilized before reaching the display. Since so many organisms, not just bacteria, can use this type of carbon dosing I wonder if dosing before a large refugium would encourage different organisms than dosing closer to the DT.

I don't know.

One of the reasons I elected vinegar is because so many different organisms naturally take up acetate. It is the single most abundant organic in carbon cycling in the ocean, at least in some literature references.

 

[3Twinklets]

Randy, are you going to up the dose daily?

 

[hart24601]

Should you ever get bored Randy, try dosing near the DT and see if you observe any differences! My system isn't large enough for such things.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Randy, are you going to up the dose daily?

I upped it all at once today. It gets dosed over a period from about 8 AM to 5 PM, mostly in the earlier part of the day.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Should you ever get bored Randy, try dosing near the DT and see if you observe any differences! My system isn't large enough for such things.

Yes, that could be an interesting comparison.

 

[Rybren]

I dose vinegar into the first chamber of my sump. In this chamber, I have the returns from the DT, a pump that feeds my external skimmer, a pump that feeds a GFO/GAC reactor, and a brand news ATS. Water overflows into the section where the return pump resides.

I get a fair bit of bacterial buildup on the pump intakes and in the reactor. I don't see any anywhere else in the system.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks. Having that show up in the DT is what I was trying to avoid.

 

[RacingTiger03]

Since I have DT only with HOB skimmer and a filter I use as a small fuge (currently out of order, can't get the pump to stop leaking, and apparently the whole thing isn't made anymore :cry I get the bacteria buildup on my power-heads that I dose into. I just clean those alternating weekly instead of monthly now. When I was having trouble with hair algae the white colonies would grow and build on top of the hair algae. It was quite the interesting trait to see taking place actually. I would see the white strings grow on the hair algae, and not even a day later the algae would turn brown to be devoured by snails, lol. Never did get over 23ML in my 30gallon before running into bloom problems.

 

[hart24601]

I dose right alongside my return pump and have never noticed any bacterial mass anywhere. I do have ceramic rock though, perhaps there is enough surface area that the bacteria are not seen.